ancient writings, which, though unquestionably excellent, it hath long been the fashion of pedants to praise beyond the limits of sense and decency; but I know, likewise, that their taste was as corrupted as their impiety was detestable. The Koran of Mahomet hath been celebrated for its eloquence; and the impostor himself, in the want of real miracles, pretended that the composition was so admirable as to demonstrate its claim to inspiration. But the most sublime passages have been evidently stolen from the scriptures, and have lost a portion of their original dignity by the changes which the deceiver hath made upon them, in order to conceal his depredations. When compared, therefore, with parallel passages in the sacred books, their grandeur is lost" in the blaze of a greater light."* "Its loftiest strains," says a writer by no means partial to the scriptures," must yield to the sublime simplicity of the book of Job, composed in a remote age, in the same country, and in the same language."† His idea of the language, in which the book of Job was written, may be disputed; but his character of its composition, and the preference which he gives it to the Koran, are proofs, that, laying aside for a moment, the prejudices of infidelity, he hath decided according to the dictates of a just taste, and a sound understanding.

II. A second argument for the inspiration of the scriptures is drawn from their piety.

The sacred books breathe a spirit of devotion towards God, of holy reverence, of faith, of resignation, of zeal for his glory. Their tendency is to form in our minds just and elevated conceptions of

* White's Sermons, Sermon vi. † Gibbon's History, chap. La

his nature; to make us acquainted with the relations in which he stands to us, and to impress upon our hearts a sense of the obligations which flow from them; to beget and cherish the disposition and the habit of contemplating him in every object and occurrence, and of referring all things to him; to inspire us with the sentiments and affections, which correspond to his infinite excellencies, and are a due return for his beneficence; and to excite us to consecrate ourselves to his service, and to glorify him with our souls and our bodies which are his. They seem to have been written with the express design to lead us to admire the perfections and the works of God; to praise his goodness and adore his justice, in the dispensations of his providence; and to yield cheerful and conscientious obedience to his laws.

While too much,

In human compositions, atheistical and irreligious sentiments are too often introduced; or the subject of religion is purposely avoided, because disagreeable to the author, or to those whom he wishes to be his readers; or when it is the avowed intention of the writer to treat of God and our duty to him, ideas are brought forward of a nature fitted to cool and to repress the emotions of piety. sometimes all, is ascribed to the wisdom and virtue of man, or to the power of natural causes, God is kept out of our view, we lose all sense of our dependence upon him, and our gratitude is weakened or extinguished. This will be found, on due consideration, to be the tendency and the real effect even of some writings which profess to be religious. But in the scriptures every thing leads us directly to God. All good is represented as flowing from

his hand; all events as ordered by his wisdom; all men as the instruments, which he employs to execute his purposes. We are conducted behind the

curtain and shewn the hand which moves all the springs of the mighty machine; which causes all the revolutions in the universe. One great agent appears, whom creatures animate and inanimate serve. Their powers, their talents, their virtues, their atchievements, instead of being placed in opposition to him, as advancing a rival claim to our admiration and praise, conspire to display his glory and to elevate our ideas of him, by being exhibited both as the gifts of his bounty, and as the means by which he carries forward his plans to their completion. In short, by the light of the scriptures we behold him in every place and in every event; and their manifest design is, to make him the continual object of our meditation, our confidence, our love, and our homage.

To the scriptures, men are indebted for all their just notions of God; and if there be some places of the earth, where worthy conceptions are formed of his essence, his attributes, his government, his worship, and the obedience which we owe to him, they are those places alone, in which the books, by us held to be inspired, are known. There is hardly any person who is not apprised of the superiority of christian to heathen nations, ancient and modern, in their ideas of religion. The conceptions which a peasant among us entertains of the Divine Being, are more exalted, and the worship which he offers to him is purer and more dignified, than were the conceptions and the worship of the most enlightened and devout philosophers of Greece and Rome.

1

"The most ignorant christian," says a sensible writer, "knows more of God, of true religion, and of moral obligations, than the most knowing pagan that ever lived. A modern philosopher would turn a downright adorer of Plato or Cicero, should he find such a lecture in either of them concerning the unity, the omnipresence, the omniscience, the justice, mercy, and power of God, concerning the creation of the world, the degeneracy and corruption of human nature, and the means of its recovery, as a poor tradesman or farmer delivers to his children on a Sunday evening."* Now reason was the same in the Gentiles as in us, and in some of them it existed in higher perfection than in the most of us; the book of nature was open to their inspection as well as to ours; and their diligence in studying it cannot be exceeded. How, then, shall we account for our superiority; a superiority which is seen in the lowest of us when compared with the highest of them? How shall we account for it but by remembering, that, besides the book of nature with which alone they were favoured, we enjoy the book of revelation? Some just notions of God prevail among Mahometans; but they are derived from the scriptures, to which, as we have formerly observed, the Koran is indebted for its purest sentiments, and its sublimest passages.-The argument which is drawn from the piety of the scriptures to prove their inspiration, we shall connect with another argument furnished by

III. Their purity or holiness.

Human writings usually bear evident marks of the moral imperfection of their authors. If there P. 55.

* Deism Revealed, vol. ii.

be any exceptions, they are such writings as have been fashioned most exactly after the model of the scriptures. Something is often found in them to provoke and inflame the passions, to justify or palliate their excesses. Even systems of morality are extremely deficient both in precepts and in prohibitions; some vices are tolerated either in whole or in part, and some virtues are omitted. Virtue is not carried to its highest pitch; allowances are made for human frailties, which, in plain language, are the irregular passions and inclinations of human nature; and less respect is paid to the purity of the motives of action than to the action itself. The intelligent reader will perceive that my subject leads me to speak only of such writings as have been drawn up by persons who had not the assistance of revelation. Yet the remarks now made may be extended to too many writings of christians, even to some which have been much admired and celebrated, as teaching the purest religion and morality. The depravity of man is a subtle poison, which insinuates itself into every thing that comes into contact with it, and the operations of which the most powerful antidotes cannot entirely prevent.

On the scriptures there is engraved in legible characters the same inscription which adorned the high priest's mitre, "Holiness to the Lord." Indeed, we cannot but consider them as a transcript of the divine purity, when we observe how careful they are to exhibit God as glorious in holiness; and with what earnestness they recommend conformity to him as our honour and our happiness. To every relation and condition of life they extend their au thority, and prescribe the duties, which, in that rela

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